Guess those two calming influences, Nate Robinson and Glen (Big Baby) Davis, were unavailable. So when the Celtics needed someone to steady matters for the even-keel approach, up popped Kevin Garnett.

“That tells you how messed up we are. Kevin Garnett is calming our team down,” said coach Doc Rivers recalled on a late Game 5 moment. “I jokingly told Armond [assistant Hill] this is a crazy basketball team here . . . But we are an emotional team, and we’re not going to hide from that.”

Actually, Rivers wanted Garnett, only slightly less excitable than the Shrek and Donkey duo of Davis and Robinson, to “speed up” his game late. Other than that, there was no fault with Garnett, who had an 18-point, 10-rebound double-double, laced with five steals, three assists and two blocks.

“All-around, definitely [his best game of the Finals],” Rivers raved. “Maybe Game 3 offensively, but all around, this was terrific.”

Garnett didn’t want to rank his performances.

“I don’t know,” Garnett said. “The severity of [Game 5 was] huge. “You don’t want to go back to L.A. with them having a chance to close out on their floor. I thought for the most part I was active. I got my hands on a lot of loose balls. Some knucklehead plays in the fourth quarter that I would like to take back . . . For the most part, I was talkative, I was loud . . . We’ve got, what, four, five days left? So it’s all or nothing from this point on.”

*

Prior to his electrifying third quarter, Kobe Bryant “tweaked” his ankle. So he had it re-taped at halftime “and went out there and found a rhythm on the game,” according to coach Phil Jackson.

Bryant seemed like the ankle wasn’t even worth mentioning — it certainly didn’t seem to bother him in his 19 consecutive point third-quarter run, part of his two-quarter streak run of 23 straight Laker points.

“I just tweaked it a little bit, just re-taped it, and it felt a lot better,” he said.

The injury of more concern is Andrew Bynum‘s right knee, which was drained Friday. Bynum started strong but had little overall impact for L.A.

“I was a little disappointed, but I’m going to be playing in Game 6. We are going to attack. We have to force a Game 7,” he said.

*

Of the previous 25 times the Finals were tied, 2-2, the Game 5 winner won the title 19 times. . . . Yup, last Game 5 winner to go up 3-2 and then go belly up in Finals was the ’94 Knicks, who dropped Games 6 and 7 in Houston. . . . Bryant has 5,003 career playoff points. He’s the fourth player to hit 5,000, joining Michael Jordan (5,987), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (5,762) and Shaquille O’Neal (5,248).